Jill Bryant

Originating Producer

Jill Bryant began her career in commercial television in England. At 25, she was the youngest fundraiser for the first and hugely successful ITV Telethon – twenty seven hours of live television, which began her addiction to “large, never been done before” projects!

Jill joined the commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Sydney, Australia, in 1989. She went on to become Director of Marketing, responsible for launching and developing big family brands like the Teletubbies and Tweenies in merchandising, DVD, books and live shows across the entire Asia Pacific region.

In 2005, she was approached by William May, Malcolm Cooke and Gerry Ryan to leave the BBC and lead the team for Walking with Dinosaurs · Arena Spectacular as Chief Executive Officer. She had no doubts! This was the biggest project of them all, literally, and one that Jill had believed in with passion while still an executive at the BBC. Together with Malcolm and William, Jill brought together a first-class creative team in Melbourne and enlisted the approval and support of Tim Haines, BBC producer of the original “Walking with Dinosaurs” TV series, to bring this major new production to life.

After several amazing and challenging years of development, the show went on tour across Australia and was an instant success with audiences of all ages – setting the scene for the dinosaurs to take to the world stage for their current international tour.